Difference
by evilgoddess62
Summary: There is a difference between being powerful, and being great. Dumbledore was both, and Harry was both. But Voldemort, for all his power, would never be great.


(A/N: Argh. It's almost midnight here, and I'm typing up yet another fic. Why? I have no idea. Maybe I've finally gone crazy. But in any case, I was - what was doing? I think I was daydreaming - anyway, the point is, I somehow remembered Olivander's words from book one: "He did great things with that wand - terrible things, yes, but still great." Or something like that. It had the words "great" and "terrible" in it, anyway. And I suddenly realized that my idea of greatness wasn't like that at all, and that if something was my idea of great then it could never be terrible as well. So I wrote a fic. About greatness and power and the difference between them. So here it is. Enjoy.)

Difference

There is a difference between being great, and being powerful. Sometimes, there comes a witch or wizard who is both, and sometimes there is a witch or wizard who is neither, but most are one or the other.

Dumbledore was both. He had power, but he also had greatness. He was brave and fierce and stood up for his cause, and the people he loved. He made mistakes, and those mistakes had great consequences, but he was always loyal to the end, even if that end was his. He was great.

Harry was both. He had power, maybe not quite as much as Dumbledore, but he was one of the greatest wizards ever. He put all others before himself. He took it upon himself to protect everyone from Voldemort, whether they were magical or muggle, friend or stranger. He tried to save everyone, to be the hero they needed, no matter what the cost to himself. He was truly great.

Ron was great, and Hermione was great. Neville, Luna, and Ginny were great. Dean and Seamus and even Padma and Lavender and Colin and everyone else who was never noticed, they were all great. They weren't powerful. They would never shine with their own light as Harry and Dumbledore did, they would never perform great magics or be in the newspaper headlines. But they were loyal and brave and believed in love and light and laughter, and so they kept the darkness from truly winning. They were great.

Voldemort was powerful. He could make others follow him through fear, fear of the power that he held. He could take their lives with a single spell, he could destroy their sanity with another. He worked his entire life to gain that kind of power over someone, because he believed that power equaled greatness.

But he was wrong.

Greatness didn't mean snapping your fingers and having whatever you wanted brought to you immediately. It didn't mean having followers who obeyed you not out of loyalty, but out of fear of your power. It didn't mean being able to torture someone and have no one speak out, because they didn't want the same thing to happen to them. Greatness didn't mean any of that.

Greatness meant being battered and beaten and bruised, and not bowing your head because you know that your cause is worth all of it. Greatness means being broken and bloody and tired, and not giving up because you've got a fire inside of you that keeps you going, keeps you fighting for everything you believe in and everyone you love.

Greatness isn't a scar on a baby's forehead, or a mark on your arm. Greatness is a skinny, messy haired boy who is tired of fighting, but he goes on anyway because he is too full of love and light to let the darkness win. Greatness is a redhead and a bookworm that throw themselves into countless dangers because they are too loyal to their friends to do otherwise. Greatness is anyone who has ever defied the darkness because of their loyalty and their love.

Greatness is an old man with twinkling blue eyes, who gave his life so that a spy could keep his, and greatness is that same spy keeping faith in the light even when he is surrounded by darkness.

And so, years after they have all passed away in the cycle of life, it is the names of the great that will be spoken with a smile, and with joy. Harry, and Dumbledore, and Ron and Hermione and Ginny and Neville and Luna, and sometimes even those who were never noticed, their names are the ones spoken fondly of by children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. They are the ones spoken of again and again and again, the ones that are remembered and become ageless legends through time, while the name _Voldemort _is merely a smudge on their brilliant tapestry, an inkblot on their enchanting book.

Because they were great, and Voldemort, for all his power, will never be great.

**0000000000**

(A/N: Whew. Glad I got that out of my system. Now that I'm reading it over, it sounds an awful lot like some kind of motivational speech or something. o.0 Weird. Anyways, the reason this was posted around 8:40 in the morning instead of at 1:00 is because my parents forced me to go to bed before I was done typing. It isn't fair. I don't even have school today, so why do I have to go to sleep early?

Well, okay, one in the morning isn't exactly 'early,' but still...

Anyway, please please review! I love them! Even if they are only like five words long! But I love them even more if they are longer!)


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